Three Xbox One and Xbox Series X games have been hard delisted, which means not only are they unavailable to purchase on the Xbox Store, but the option to download them from your library is also being removed. Even if you purchased any or all of the games, you can no longer download the games and play them. If the games are already downloaded on your Xbox console, you can continue to play them — for now — but if they aren’t downloaded, you are out of luck, even if you own them. And this highlights the biggest issue with the all-digital future. Every game you own, you won’t really own. Right now, every game you own digitally is just a glorified rental, as some Xbox users just painfully found out.
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Video games — including video games on Xbox platforms — are delisted all the time. Almost every day this happens. Seldom are games hard delisted, though, which is when they’re removed from storefronts, and the option to download the game from your library is also removed. It does happen on occasion, and it just happened with three games from developer Creepy Brothers. Unless you have these games downloaded to your Xbox console, you no longer own them, and you aren’t getting a refund either.
Developer vs Publisher Dispute
The three games are 2018’s Strike Force Kitty, 2020’s Creepy Tale, and 2021’s. These aren’t the biggest and most noteworthy games, but they aren’t random shovelware either. Strike Force Kitty has nearly 1,000 user reviews on Steam with an 89% approval rating. Creepy Tale has nearly 500 user reviews with a 79% approval rating. And then Creepy Tale 2 has 1,276 user reviews with an 89% approval rating. These games have their fans, but not anymore because while Xbox is first, it’s not the last platform where these games will be removed. They will also be removed from PlayStation and Nintendo platforms soon, leaving them only available on Steam.
Why? Why is this happening? Well, when a game is specifically hard delisted, it’s often because of a dispute between its developer and publisher, and that is exactly the case here. According to developer Creepy Brothers, the publisher of the games on console — No Gravity Games — has violated the terms of the agreement and not paid royalties for several years.
“I’m very sorry that players have to suffer because of terrible publishers, but we had no choice,” reads a statement from the developer on social media platform X. “The games have been removed from the store because the publisher has violated the terms of the agreement and has not paid royalties for several years.”
It is unclear if the games will return to sale in the future with a different publisher or as self-published titles. Right now, it does not seem like this is in the cards, though. Unfortunately for Xbox fans, this is the second noteworthy delisting in July alone, with an exclusive Xbox 360 game delisted back at the start of the month, which itself followed two other exclusive games being delisted in April. None of these were hard delistings, though, which is why these new ones are particularly noteworthy.
All of that said, and as always, feel free to leave a comment or two letting us know what you think, or join the video game conversations over on the ComicBook Forum.
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Courtesy of Crystal Dynamics and Amazon Games
